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Reviews by nudeood

90

The two best classic GTA games in one package

Both of these games have a spot in history as classic open-world sandbox games.

If you can look past the dated visuals, San Andreas offers a diverse landscape with city and rural areas and interesting characters throughout. You play as a gang member and partake in various activities from street fights to invading military bases to sneaking into peoples homes. Aside from the story, you are free to explore the city and enjoy driving and shooting your way around town.

In GTA IV, you instead play as an immigrant in search of money and fame. The city is less suburban and much more grand, although the crimes are no less common. You end up in shootouts, drug deals, robberies and tons of driving missions which are just as fun as ever.

85

The famous building game you know and love

Minecraft is a game with a simple format which becomes a huge amount of fun once a little bit of imagination is added.

You play as an individual in an infinitely-huge randomly generated world. From grassy plains to deserts, jungles and snowy mountains, every world is unique. The basic objective of the game is to explore and survive. At night, various hostiles such as zombies and spiders will arrive and attack, meaning that preparation and survival tactics are needed.

Once you've established shelter and found food, weaponry and tools, the exploration begins. You are free to connect with friends and invite them into your world to traverse the thousands of dungeons together, collecting resources to build whatever you desire.

Huge fun with friends and creativity.

85

New Take on an Excellent Game Series

If you have played any of the older Sim City titles you will know what to expect and be mostly familiar with the experience this game offers.

You create and manage a city from scratch and establish residential, commercial and industrial sections of land. Now, you can manage multiple cities and specialise them for certain uses. For example, you may have a coal mining town nearby to a residential district and a commercial tourist city, all connected and distributing resources between each other. This makes gameplay much more interesting as you can have separate cities for different utilities (electricity, water, sewage, commerce, etc) rather than fitting them all into a single city.

Unfortunately some features are missing, such as underground transport, underground water pipes, and overhead electricity wires, meaning these resources are distributed via the road system only with little customisation. My biggest disappointment with the game was the small cities you can build, you are only permitted a small area and you can fill it with buildings in a fairly short time, at which point you are left simply maintaining the city rather than expanding it.

However, the game makes up for this with its fantastic visuals - it is a great looking game.

95

Not quite on par with Fallout 3

If you loved Fallout 3, then Fallout New Vegas is a must-play game, although the environment and atmosphere aren't quite as good. As a standalone game, this is still fantastic. The level of freedom is unmatched by many other open-world games, and the lack of vehicles means you truly experience the wasteland environment as you trek across it. The main storyline is interesting and involves plenty of karmic choices to result in one of many different endings. This free will is reflected in the gameplay aspects of New Vegas, where you are able to level your character and tailor them to suit you specific playstyle. You may develop a character who excels in melee combat, with sniper rifles or even is a charismatic pacifist. However you choose to play the game, it will last for hundreds of hours of entertainment and be a unique experience every time.

100

So good I bought it twice

I would never usually rate a game 100/100, but Skyrim is one of the few games that truly deserves its acclaim. If you own a games console or PC you should also own Skyrim, it is a game that has everything. Fans of the Elder Scrolls series will particularly enjoy playing through this game, where the phrase 'free-roam' is taken to a new level. There are countless civilizations to uncover, caves to skirmish and artifacts to find. For true completionists, Skyrim is a game that will provide thousands of hours of levelling, exploring and collecting. The way you play is completely up to you, whether you choose to be a warrior, thief, archer, wizard or even a non-combat pacifist; there are plenty of skills to keep you hooked and countless interesting quests with unique rewards. The game's difficulty scales as you level up, so no matter how powerful you become, your enemies will still prove to be a challenge. Skyrim is a truly fantastic game that everyone should have the chance to play it at least once, and the way you play it is completely up to you.

70

Forgettable Fun

Motorstorm Pacific Rift is a game that can't truly be enjoyed without friends. It has a fantastic combination of realism and lunacy that is entertaining for a while, but will soon wear off. Unlike other racing games, you can race with anything from a quadbike to a monster truck and everything in between. This adds an interesting tacical element; where bikes can take certain shortcuts, rally cars have the advantage of speed, and huge trucks are slower but literally roll over other cars. This is a game where every racer will crash ten times each race, and the difference between first and second place can be minutes rather than milliseconds. The beauty of the game is in choosing the right path on each course, as each circuit has a variety of off-road and insane paths to take - through water, lava or mud. With a few friends this can be the perfect casual racing game for a short burst of entertainment.

80

Slow and steady wins the race

I had never played a Hitman game before, despite being a big fan of stealth games. Eventually I took the plunge and bought the entire Hitman collection so I could play through all the games. Absolution was the first I tried, and in many ways it exceeded my expectations. There is a definitive focus on remaining hidden throughout missions, with the occasional change of using a disguise to walk straight past enemies. This means that every mission has a variety of completion methods, although some will be much more difficult than others. The thing that struck me about this game was the difficulty of pulling off silent assassinations. Hitman Absolution certainly doesn't make it easy for you to sneak right up to your target without being noticed, and many times lack of patience leads to a exposed gunfight. That being said, the best way to approach the game is as an stealth action game, where you can enjoy using a combination of stealth, disguises and shooting to dispatch targets.

92

One of the best games I've played

If you are a fan of Bethesda or love role-playing games, you would be a fool to miss out on Fallout New Vegas. From the makers of the Elder Scrolls series, including the fantastic Skyrim, comes the 'pseudo-sequel' to my all-time favourite game; Fallout 3. In New Vegas, you will once again set foot in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and this time the main environment is the vast deserts of future Las Vegas. Although it may not sound exciting, exploration is still as fun as ever as you encounter ruins, settlements, forests, mountains, underground vaults and cave systems. As always in a Bethesda title, there are hundreds of quests to complete and countless weapons and pieces of apparel to find. The levelling system is incredibly rewarding and allows you to tailor your character to excel in stealth, melee combat, and even pacifist diplomacy and bartering. This means that the way you play the game is completely up to you and different every time. This is combined with multiple different plot endings depending on various political and karmic choices, which encourage multiple play-throughs.

90

Stunning visuals, unforgettable exploration

Far Cry 3 was without doubt my favourite game of the year when I played it. If not for the lackluster multiplayer and lack of online players, it would be close to the perfect game. Firstly, the story is not only interesting, but you are introduced to some truly unique and unforgettable characters such as the modern-day pyscho pirate Vaas. The plot, however, is not at all linear. You are free to roam on a huge paradise island which is both beautiful and deadly. Whether you are silently assassinating guards in a hostile pirate compound, or patiently hunting a huge wild tiger, there's plenty of variety in the combat gameplay. Although the island is jungle throughout, there's evident diversity as you discover settlements, coves, beaches, ruins and caves with hidden treasures. The game also include a map editor which is a fantastic bonus allowing you to create maps to play online, although you will have to find friends to play with as the multiplayer is mostly abandoned. Altogether, this game will easily suck you in for many hours of entertainment, while completionists will enjoy exploring every area to find every collectable for hundreds of hours.

80

Entertaining the first timeyou play through it

Dead Space 2 was the first horror-shooter game I have played (although I had played BioShock 1 and 2 beforehand which have horror elements). I was really excited to see if a game could actually be scary and enjoyable, and I was not disappointed. Right from the beginning of the game you are thrust into a disturbing and tense situation with no way to defend yourself. The fact that you are without a weapon for the first half-hour of the game really set you up for a suspenseful play-through. Throughout the story there are plenty of tense and scary moments, and the shooting controls are robust enough to allow for flexible gameplay using the various different weapons you obtain. Unfortunately, that is where the replay value of the game is cut off. Aside from the limited customisation options of the weapons and suits, once you have played through the game once it will feel incredibly familiar the second time around. The multiplayer has a few good ideas allowing a team of humans to fight a team of necromorphs, but there are obvious balance issues which result in the human side always winning.

85

Very addictive

The Sims 3 is a very addictive game, which should come as no surprise to those who have played previous Sims games. If you have played any of the previous titles, the content of the game will be very similar, as there's not many new additions that dramatically change the gameplay. The main focus of the game is to establish a person or family and build a life - including a house, job and friends. In the Sims 3, the focus is taken away from just building a house, and there are plenty of other things for your sims to do. A major part of the game is the skill system, whereby your sims can learn musical instruments, train their fitness, or even become artists. This is a good addition which allows for alternative ways to earn money rather than just relying on occupational income. For example, a sim who trains their guitar skill can make friends with other musicians and create a band, who will perform for money. The town is also open-world, which is interesting but can be resourcefully draining on your console or pc as there's a lot more to load. If you are a Sims fan, you will definitely enjoy the Sims 3, but it doesn't offer a lot of new content and focuses less on the construction element of the games.

75

Great fun, unrealised potential

Prototype is a typical open-world sandbox with a fun twist. You play as Alex Mercer, a human experiment with a lot of power. The true enjoyment of the game comes from creatively deploying your powers to annihilate enemies with style and imagination. You have the ability to launch yourself into the air and run across the sides of buildings, which makes even getting from point A to B an enjoyable experience. Other abilities such as shape-shifting give you the potential to adopt a lower profile and attempt to assassinate people stealthily, although it is not the most fluid gameplay mechanic. The game's plot is a low point, it is a typical 'revenge' story where the player kills everyone in their path to try and find some answers. Visually, the game is also let down. Although the open city environment is large and fairly diverse, it is drab and lifeless throughout. In addition, due to the speed at which the character can travel, objects are often slow to load and can distract greatly from the sense of immersion. Overall, it's definitely a lot of fun if you are able to ignore the boring storyline and underwhelming aesthetics.

90

Beautiful but not for everyone

I got this game on sale and was extremely happy to play it as it's a great benchmark for a gaming pc due to the beautiful visuals of the game. If you have a powerful computer it's worth buying Battlefield 3 simply to experience the almost life-like environments and enjoy true immersion. The single-player campaign has an underwhelming plot but allows you to learn the gameplay fundamentals, which is important as this game does not play like a typical shooter. You have to fully utilise cover and the destructive environments in order to complete missions, meaning there's more to thing about when selecting a load-out than simply choosing your favourite gun. The game's highlight is the multiplayer, where you can put these tactics to the test with squadmates and land, sea and air vehicles. This makes online matches extremely fun, diverse and very addictive.

80

Fantastic with Friends

If you play this game on your own, you're sure to enjoy it, but you definitely won't be raving over it. With a friend or two, it's another story entirely. I first played through this game alone, and found it pretty entertaining for a few straight hours. You level up and have to scavenge weapons to survive in a free-roam zombie invested paradise. However, after a while I became bored and stop playing without any discernible reason to carry on. When I found out a friend had bought the game and wanted to play co-op, I was pretty excited to restart the story and try to become immersed again. Playing with a friend in co-op was exactly what I needed to get back into the game. Being with another person truly adds to the sense of survival, and makes for much more unique and interesting combat events. Visually, the game is good-looking enough to provide immersion and realism, with some well thought-out characters in the story. You should enjoy it enough alone, but to be truly enjoyed this game deserves 2+ players.

85

Great fun

After playing and loving Saints Row the Third, I had to try this prequel. I was not disappointed, although I had to look past the fact that the game refused to play at my monitor's native resolution. After this initial disappointment, I was soon back to the over-the-top free-roam fun that I was expecting. In many ways the game is less absurd the the Third, but in some ways it is even more wacky. There's plenty of unique missions, with more of a focus on the gang, and the co-op mode once again provides hours of entertainment when combined with the free-roam nature of the game. As with all Saints Row games, the highlight is definitely the customisation. If you love to change the way everything looks - your character, vehicles and home - this game will certainly satisfy!

60

Typical Hack-n-Slash Game

I had never played a game like this before because the genre doesn't interest me, but if you're a big fan of third-person hack-n-slash games then you may want to give it a try. In Darksiders you play as 'War', one of the horsemen of the apocalypse. This sounds really cool in theory, but you never feel as though you get to use any of the power than such a being would have. The game becomes very repetitive early on, since all you do is run around and slice up a bunch of enemies in melee combat. Some of the weapons and upgrades are nice, but they don't dynamically change the way you play the game, they just act as a way to encourage you to keep playing to unlock more.

75

Harder than it looks

I bought this game because it's a low price and I simplistic, so I thought it would be good for a laptop as an on-the-go game. In some ways it's prefect, the randomly generated levels and super-simple controls make it easy to hop in and have a 15 minutes of fun without having to get 'into' the game. The art style is an intriguing of cute and disturbing, and it's great fun to acquire new objects that change the physical appearance of the character - a feature that keeps you coming back until you've seen all of them. The game's only drawbacks (for me personally), are its difficulty and level system. The game is purposefully difficult, and a death results in you being reset to the very first level of the game. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it means that to actually get to later levels or complete the game you would have to sit for hours under complete concentration - not something I would want to do on a game I bought to play on-the-go for short periods of time

95

Fantastic value!

This really is one of the best value bundles at the moment. £5 for 3 of the most loved games in the original sandbox series is a bargain. If you have a low-spec PC or laptop, this deal is particularly great as these games run perfectly at low resolutions and are immensely fun despite their aged visuals. If you loved GTA IV, these prequels will provide you with thousands of hours of extra gameplay in a variety of new locations with more colourful and varied weapons, vehicles and characters. GTA 3 is set in Liberty City, so you will recognise some of the features and be able to enjoy a brand new storyline in the original sandbox game of the series. Vice City is set in a much more vibrant location and has interesting feature, such as remote control vehicles, which would have seemed abstract in the realistic world of GTA IV. The third game, San Andreas, is arguably the best of the three. It has a distinctively likeable location and characters, with fun features such as the pedal bike and jet-pack. After playing this trio, it's clear to see why some people thought GTA IV lacked many fun features of the previous titles.

90

Free-roam fun

This was the first Assassin's Creed game I played, which hooked me on the series completely! Since then I bought and played through Assassin's Creed 2, Assassin's Creed Revelations, and finally the original Assassin's Creed game. Brotherhood has a special place in my heart since it was my first experience of the series, but after playing through them all it remains only my second favourite - behind AC2. The game involves climbing and free-running across renaissance Italy with a combination of speed and stealth, where you must assassinate targets to follow the increasingly complex storyline. Even after playing most games in the series, the plot still seems unnecessarily complicated and often slows the gameplay as you have to occasionally play through the 'modern day' missions. Overall, it's more of the same Assassin's Creed goodness - it's hardly an improvement on AC2 but as a standalone game it's fantastic.

90

The Ultimate WWII Shooter

This was the first Call of Duty game I had the chance to play a good few years back, and was one of the main reasons I originally purchased a PS3. The single-player campaign is a realistic portrayal of the grim intensity of the WWII frontline. Each mission is diverse and introduces new weapons and gameplay mechanics such as vehicles and stealth. There is an additional 'veteran' difficulty for those who want to experience the game as brutal as the reality it depicts. The online multiplayer allows you to play with weapons and locations from the campaign mode in various gamemodes from Deathmatch to Capture the Flag. The movement and shooting controls are incredibly responsive and still stand as some of the best in modern gaming. The final gamemode, 'Nazi Zombies' is an interesting feature which adds an element of abstract fun in the midst of all the realistic and dark missions. You may not enjoy it as much as some of the other parts of the game, but it's a great extra feature that serves as a fun break with friends.

75

You'll love it i you love football

If you love football, you'll love Fifa - it really is that simple. The latest version of the game offers updated transfers and kits, which is essential for those who follow the sport. If you're a fan of playing online with mates, this is a great game, allowing for cooperative or competitive play with a choice of a large variety of teams from international leagues. Fifa offers 4 main variations of game mode. Firstly, the standard 'Kick-off' mode allows you to simply pit any two teams against each other to play against AI or a friend. You can also do 2v2, 3v3, etc, which is great if you have plenty of controllers and mates to play with. The second mode is the single-player 'Career' mode. This is an interesting and addictive way of playing which allows you to either manage a football team or become a player and work your way to becoming a club legend. The third game mode is 'Pro Clubs', which is online only. You create a player and can join a team online, levelling up your player's stats as you play matches and complete achievements. This is very fun with a group of friends as you can make a team together and play other teams to win cups and level up together. The final and most renowned game mode is 'Ultimate Team', which is also online only. You start with a poor team and must play matches and win tournaments to earn money. You can use this money to buy any player by bidding on the market against other people around the world. The ability to create your own dream team and play against others is addictive and one of the game's most fun parts.

90

A new take on stealth

Dishonored is one of the most unique games I've had the pleasure of playing in the last couple of years. As a huge Bethesda fan, I had high expectations even though I wasn't too sure what the game had to offer. The main plot is easy to follow, although there are many details which can seem confusing unless you carefully read diaries and listen to all the in-game conversations. The stealth gameplay is fantastic, and each level offers a variety of potential routes and methods of completion. Whether you choose to crawl through the sewers, shoot your way through the streets or run across the rooftops, no level feels repetitive. The supernatural powers you can use are certainly interesting, but there are only a couple which seem necessary as you progress through the game. If you are a fan of stealth/assassination games and want an enjoyable and memorable experience, Dishonored is a must play.

85

Not your standard racing game

This is certainly not a typical, linear racing game. If you've ever experienced the free-roam style of driving games such as Burnout Paradise, this game will feel similar and just as much fun. There are no rules confining you to a particular set of racetracks or routes, you are free to drive around the city and search every backstreet and stunt jump to find hidden cars. There is nothing quite like perfectly landing a huge jump and finding a stunning rare supercar hidden in a tight and unseen location. Until you've traversed every road, driven though each backstreet and discovered every car, you won't be able to leave the game.

75

Fun game with mates

I have some great memories of playing this way into the night with a few mates in the same room. The open-world style is incredibly fun and there's a real sense of freedom to drive wherever and however you want. If you are into games like Grand Theft Auto but really only like the driving part, this is a great alternative. The graphics are also very well done and you often feel like you're playing a driving simulator, though much more entertaining. As I said, I recommend this game for playing with a couple of friends, as the gameplay can become repetitive alone.

90

The Best Assassin's Creed Game

It's hard to describe to joys of freerunning across beautiful Italian architecture - it really is something that any other Assassin's Creed game has never been able to recreate. I personally found the original game to be visually drab, whilst Assassin's Creed Brotherhood was similarly good and Assassin's Creed Revelations felt like a step backwards. The plot in AC2 is interesting (and confusing), whilst the missions are fun and the world is a joy to explore. If you have never played an Assasin's Creed game before, I highly recommend this one.

75

Definative Multiplayer Shooter

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a first-person shooter with a focus on multiplayer and tacticality...and rightfully so. The single-player campaign is pretty terrible, though it provides a few hours of entertainment and a good introduction to the game's environments and combat mechanics. The game's multiplayer experience is a different story altogether. Unique, customisable classes and 4-man squads create a strategic gameplay experience which can only be truly enjoyed with 4 friends using voice-chat. The game's highlights are the vehicles and destructible environments. At first, the pleasure of blowing your way through a building wall with C4 is unbeatable, but soon the novelty wears off and using walls for cover becomes more important than simply destroying them. There's no denying that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 offers a great multiplayer experience, but you'll certainly grow bored of it unless playing with friends.

90

The most fun single-player I've had

Just Cause 2 is the rare case of a game that manages to be truly fun based on it's own gameplay. Many games rely on multiplayer and playing with mates to have a great time, but on this game you just hop in and put a smile on your face. You play as an agent on a massive set of islands (by far the largest open world I've ever experienced), and your goal is to blow up everything. That's right - you just shoot, demolish, drive into, fly into and destroy anything you see. Did I mention that you swing around with a parachute and grappling hook, which can also be used to throw enemies around or attach them to objects. Just Cause 2 is outrageous, mindless fun in one of the biggest sandbox worlds there is.

90

Bonkers fun

Playing this game on Co-Op with my mate has resulted in some of the most hysterical laughing fits I've ever experienced. If you've got friends who want mindless fun then this game is a must. The plot is utterly nonsensical and your character's progression from street gangster to superhuman is completely absurd - but we love it. There's crude, and then there's running around completely naked smacking pedestrians with a giant dildo. Saints Row the Third goes so far beyond the line of realism and what is 'normal' that it feels as if there's just no way to not have fun. In addition, there's a ton of customisation to be enjoyed; from character creation to car pimping to weapon upgrading to outfit selection. Find a mate to play it with and Saints Row the Third will be some of the most fun you've had in years of gaming.

85

BioShock > BioShock Infinite > BioShock 2

With the veneration that BioShock Infinite amassed, I was expecting nothing short of spectacular - especially after enjoying the first 2 games in the series. I was bitterly disappointed when I started playing however, as I simply couldn't get 'into' the game. Columbia is certainly a pretty city, the new weapons are nice and the vigors are a worthy match for plasmids. However, the game lacked the atmosphere of the first 2 from the offset. You are no longer trying to survive in a moody and disturbing world, instead you are a bulletproof vigilante focused on killing everything for the sake of killing. There's a long and complex story behind all the combat, but by the end of the game you are left with a severe headache over what it all meant.

There also feels as if there's a lot of loopholes and unexplained things in the game, for example the existence of vigors. Why are you presented with these magical tonics which give you devastating powers, and yet no other citizen seems to use (or even know about) them. In BioShock 1 and 2 plasmids made sense, people were unbound by the rules of science and self-experimented with deadly tonics. In BioShock Infinite however, vigors seem to be there just to fit in with the BioShock theme. The same can be said about Elizabeth's dimension-opening ability. She somehow only has the ability to bring in medical/ammo supplies and gun turrets from another dimension, rather than something sincerely more useful like an exit door.

This isn't to say BioShock Infinite isn't a great game. The combat is exceptionally fun with the combination of vigors, upgradable weapons and skyline transportation. The world feels almost free-roam despite the plot being linear, and there's a lot of secrets to uncover. If you have never played BioShock 1 or 2, no doubt you will love this game. If you have played either of the first 2 titles, don't get your hopes too high.

85

Not quite on par with the first game

On it's own merits, BioShock 2 stands as an enjoyable and atmospheric game, but if you've played the original you'll especially enjoy delving into the world of Rapture for a second time. In terms of combat, it certainly feels like an improvement from the first game. As a big daddy, you have a brand new selection of weapons and the option to use plasmids and guns simultaneously. This removes the need to pause every few seconds to change hands as in the first game and gives combat greater flow. However, being a big daddy doesn't come without it's drawbacks. Firstly, it removes the sense of vulnerability that created such a great atmosphere in the original game. As a human trapped in a city of disfigured and crazed inhabitants, the tension was palpable. In BioShock 2 you're just a big, mean killing machine with no need for stealth or agility. To conclude, BioShock 2 definitely feels like an improvement in terms of gameplay, but is no match to the original in terms of atmosphere.